Shopping Superwoman

There's nothing like completing an uneventful shopping trip with two kids under 2 in under 30 minutes to make you feel like Superwoman. So since I am such an amazing domestic diva, here are some tips on how you too can have a melt-down free trip to the grocery store.

1. Stuff your children like a pinata before you go to the store so that they have absolutely no reason to beg for food. We try to go right after breakfast and I nurse Rafael immediately before we leave so that their tummies are full and happy. I used to take graham crackers to the store but since Michaela's tummy is a bottomless pit when it comes to anything with carbs, we would inevitably run out and she would scream "more, more, more". So now, no food in the store. Period.

2. Keep them locked up as long as you can. I have never ever let Michaela walk freely in any store that has a cart. She sits in the front of the cart and is perfectly content because she knows nothing about the knocking displays over, running away from me possibilities that come with being free. She will stay sitting in the cart until she is too big for it to contain her, which, with her rate of growth may be never. I carry Rafael in the sling and will do so as long as my back can handle it.

3. Be prepared. I make a grocery list before I leave and have it completely categorized in the order in which I walk through the store so that nothing gets forgotten. I also put everything I need (diaper bag, cup of coffee, etc.) into the car before I nurse Rafael so that I don't spend twenty minutes running back in and out of the house for the various items I forgot.

That last one is a biggie. Otherwise you may end up driving all the way to the grocery store before realizing that you left your credit card at home and your entire trip was in vain. Only your credit card was really in the pocket of your jacket in the trunk, which you only find out after searching the entire house after you get home. So really, you did have your credit card and could have bought groceries after all. Not that that's ever happened* to me or anything.

*Yesterday.